Melissa glossed over last night pretty hard, so here it is. Everybody was freaking out about the mosquitoes, complaining about sleeping arrangements, and basically melting down. To make a long but boring story short, I ended up sleeping alone in the pop-up-tent and Melissa had the kids in the van. The rain stayed away at least, so I could keep the tent flap open for some cool air!
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| Lily helping me take down the tent in the morning |
Today was always going to be relatively easy. We weren't going to drive very many miles, things were generally up in the air for plans, we could just have a full but easy day! Even waking up we took our time. Slowly packed our belongings. Drove below the speed limit. Anything to take advantage of every last minute.
Besides refilling water, our first task was to turn in the kids' activity booklets at the Visitor Center. They were sworn in as Junior Rangers, promised to be good stewards for the park, and got some little gold badges to pin to their packs. From there we went northwest to the Saddle Pass trailhead. This was probably our most strenuous hike in the Badlands, primarily due to the steep slopes right at the beginning of the trail. That being said, it wasn't really too bad. Of course there was a certain boy who wouldn't keep off any and every rock pinnacle whether it looked safe or not.
At the top of this trail, there is a large intersection of different longer trails. We spent a good amount of time climbing around at this intersection, looking for fossils, kids pretending to be goats... And we found all sorts of bone shards all over up there. Probably the biggest ones were found first by Joey, in a limestone boulder right near the main intersection.
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| Katy as a 'professional hiker' |
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| Biggest bone shard we found, believe it's some sort of rib |
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| Brave bunnies |
After descending, we backtracked to the Visitor Center and reported our discoveries. They had us fill out a small form, and actually gave the kids each a cloth patch for being fossil finders. Pretty cool! We left at noon, and completed the Loop Road through the park. It was about 2 hours from the Badlands to Mount Rushmore. We randomly stopped at a scenic overlook to take one last photo, even though we had plenty already. But when we crossed the road Katy saw a huge snake slithering into the grassy cover. It was not a rattlesnake, although nobody around knew what type it was.
Around 1:30 we found a Walmart and decided to get some ice, groceries, and some lunch. It was a little slow to get into the parking area, turns out the fire department was extinguishing a car fire :O I should say that there was TONS of motorcycle traffic everywhere the last few days. Well turns out today was the final day of the Sturgis Motorcycle festival or whatever it is. I know very little about it other than it exists and attracts hundreds of thousands of riders.
We arrived at Mount Rushmore like 2:30ish. The National Park pass doesn't cover the parking fee here, but $10 is reasonable for us all to see something this iconic. The bad news here was the whole main area toward the presidents was under construction. I think most people just take a photo and then leave, but NOT US!!!! We walked down to the studio building where they have the working model of the sculpture. It started pouring and was even some small hail while we were inside so we worked on some Rushmore Jr Ranger books and got another set of badges. It stopped raining so we hiked the short Presidential Trail (I think it's called) boardwalk going closer to the Presidents.
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| Starting to rain? We don't care :) |
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| Recreating a photo from Mary's friend Elise |
We left Mt Rushmore around 5:45 and drove the last 20 minutes into Hill City. It started pouring rain right outside town. Got gas next door to our campground, and spent the rest of the night in the van getting tomorrow's hiking packs ready and full of snacks, eating dinner, and settling in. Tomorrow will be much busier!
Here's a recap:
- Woke up around 6:30, but mostly got up around 7 am. Organizing the van a bit, taking down tent, putting our van into go-mode, bathroom runs for everyone
- Probably left camp around 8:45 and went straight to the visitor center. Filled water bottles and ate some breakfast. Kids became Jr. Rangers
- 9:15 - went to hike Saddle Pass. fossil finds
- 11:30- back to visitor center, reported our fossils and kids got a patch
- 12pm - Leaving Badlands park via Loop Road, snake sighting,
- 1:30pm - Walmart for ice, groceries. Lunch, car on fire
- 2:30ish pm - Arrive at Mt Rushmore. Lots of Sturgis traffic. Dead presidents, some rain/hail
- 5:45pm - Leave Mt Rushmore
- Just after 6 pm - Filled up with gas next door to our campground, $2.85/gal, 18.364 gal, $52.50. Spent the rest of the evening in the van due to rain. Total miles traveled today: 123
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